Padma Lakshmi: The Decision That Would Create a Permanent American Underclass

Ms. Lakshmi is the creator and host of “America’s Culinary Cup” and “Taste the Nation,” and the author of the cookbook and memoir “Padma’s All American.”

For the past several years, my work has taken me across the nation — into towns and cities, kitchens and community centers, where generations of Indigenous, Black and immigrant Americans shared their family recipes with me. I was warmly given a front-row seat to learn about the cooking that shapes American cuisine and culture.

I encountered not a single story of America, but many, all evolving as newcomers to our country inherited the practices of those who came before — and brought new ones to add to the national treasure.

Underpinning so many of these meals and immigrant stories — including my own family’s — was a centuries-old tradition that children born here are Americans. That guarantee is called birthright citizenship, and it’s been enshrined in our Constitution since 1868.

Birthright citizenship provides certainty, and that certainty is what propels people to invest in their communities, to innovate and ultimately to create traditions that become unmistakably American.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case challenging President Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. At stake is more than a legal case — birthright citizenship gets at the heart of American values and culture.

The Trump administration is arguing that not all children born in the United States should be citizens. Under the president’s executive order, babies born on American soil after Feb. 19, 2025, would be denied citizenship at birth if neither parent is a U.S. citizen or has permanent immigration status. The administration has attempted to justify this order by framing birthright citizenship as a legal loophole, rather than what it is: a constitutional safeguard that has shaped America for generations.

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